


Wait for Me to Come Home

by jappfrost



Category: Merlin (TV)
Genre: Angst, But really its more fluff than anything, Fluff, Itsy bitsy tiny bit of angst, M/M, soldier!Arthur
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-10-18
Updated: 2015-10-18
Packaged: 2018-04-26 23:22:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,143
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5024617
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jappfrost/pseuds/jappfrost
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Arthur returns home after serving two years in the military. How would he face the love of his life that he left behind without a word?</p>
            </blockquote>





	Wait for Me to Come Home

**Author's Note:**

> I don't know shit about serving the military so forgive me for all inaccuracies.
> 
> The tail end of this fic was also written in a sort of rush so it may be a little bit rough.
> 
> Actually, entire fic's not beta'd so everything might end up rough. I hope that won't bother you much though!

Arthur saw him through the glass window of that age-old candy shop where they first truly got together. Although he couldn’t hear it, he could see that he was laughing at a toddler who was valiantly getting out of the mother’s grasps just so that he could reach for the desired sweet.

He wished to hear that laugh again. But where would he muster the guts to face him, when two years ago, he chose the military over this man that he so deeply loved. In his mind, he knew that the man in the candy store would pardon him, for he was not one to be unforgiving. But was Arthur worth it? He left without a word.

He stood there, just across the street from the shop, watching as toddler and mom left the store with a bag full of tooth-rotting treats. More customers came and went, but Arthur never moved a muscle, just there, a few meters away from the love of his life, with his trimmed blond hair and sturdy, soldier-like posture.

People occasionally bumped into him and cursed at him for being in the way, but he did not mind them. Some went as far as to call the police, regarding him as dubious and creepy, which he conceded to as truth, given the fact that he has been there for hours. He stopped them of course, giving out a crazy excuse or another, but never the real reason. For it seemed to him that no one else should know, no one else could know, that he was there. These people usually just gave him unconvinced glares but left him alone nevertheless.

He couldn’t leave him, though. He had to drink in his beauty, his sheer existence, so that he could remind himself of the wonderful thing that he had lost. With what he was doing, he could probably call himself a masochist, but he needed to know if Merlin was happy, if he was moving on.

And he seemed like it.

After all, two years was a long time. There was enough time to cry and to hold anger, and time to recover. Merlin definitely had enough time to find somebody else that could make him happy.

As of yet, there was no other man who entered the shop that interacted with him like more than mere friends. But that didn’t mean that there was no boyfriend, fiancée or whatever.

The shop was empty now, save for Merlin, and Arthur observed that his smile has faded and his look has turned wistful, far away and lost in thought. He was unconsciously rubbing a locket that hung around his neck.

Arthur knew that locket. He was the one to give Merlin that locket after winning it from one of the games in the fair that visited town when they were sixteen. Merlin had cried buckets of tears that day, claiming that Arthur gave him what he deemed to be equivalent to a wedding band, a solemn promise. Their relationship was young then, just a few months of dating every now and then. They haven’t even gotten beyond kissing, but they knew that their love was real and that they would be each other’s for eternity.

That was before Uther found out and forced Arthur to go to the military. He was already twenty then, and damn it, he should have had a stronger resolve never to leave Merlin behind even if it meant that Uther threatened to disinherit him! And it was so sudden, he had no time to tell anyone where he would be going for two years.

All he had for those two years was a photograph of him and Merlin, both of them grinning widely, with a newly renovated candy shop at the background. It was the moment Merlin’s Uncle Gaius passed onto him the responsibilities of the shop. It was such a grand moment for them, and it’s this memory that Arthur brought with him.

The ringing of the candy shop bell broke Arthur from his reverie, but what really brought him back to the present was the vision that stood there by the shop door.

Merlin, hand in his mouth, eyes threatening to flood with unshed tears, was looking straight at him as if he was a ghost.

They stood on opposite sides of the tiny road that separates them in awkward silence and only after a few minutes did Arthur regain the power of speech.

“Um… hi.” He said. Okay, maybe not yet grasping the full capability of speech.

“Arthur?” Merlin asked in response, his voice and body shaky with disbelief. “Is that really you?” He was approaching with so much apprehension that Arthur took pity on him and he took it upon himself to cross the distance between them.

Merlin embraced him with so much passion that Arthur thought he was going to die of asphyxiation.

“You idiot!” Merlin cried on his neck. He was sniffing, as if struggling to breathe and trying to confirm and familiarize himself with the scent of this Arthur. “Where have you been these past years? I was so lonely without you! And you didn’t even say anything!”

Arthur rubbed at his back in that motion he knew would calm Merlin down. “Hush, love. I went to the military, and believe me, I am so sorry for having left you behind.”

“You better.” Merlin still wasn’t letting go but he extricated his head from Arthur’s neck to glare at him though the effect was ruined with the fondness that was so clearly etched on his face. “And now, you have to make it up to me by never leaving my side, ever again.”

“If there is no one else in your life…” Arthur prompted and Merlin shook his head in response. “And if you’re willing to take back this fool of a man as your boyfriend…” Merlin nodded enthusiastically. “Then I am all yours, my love.” And with that, they kissed, right there under the lamp post where they have shared their first kiss years ago.

“Does Uther know?” Merlin asked, when they broke apart. He was breathless, but it was clear that he was thrilled with the presence of Arthur.

“He found out that we were together back then.” Arthur shared. “For that, he had me go to the military so that we break apart. But we talked again, just recently, and he has conceded that there was no changing who I am, and I told him that I still love you, and probably love you till forever, so all in all, I don’t think he’d be that surprised should he finally meet you formally.”

Merlin grinned at that. “Oh, I love you, Arthur. I missed you so much!”

“I love you, too.” Arthur said with as much passion as Merlin did.

And again, they kissed.


End file.
